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FCA obtains high court judgement against unauthorised brokers

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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has obtained a High Court judgment against unauthorised mortgage brokers and exploiting vulnerable customers who were in financial difficulty.

London Property Investments (U.K) Limited, NPI Holdings Limited, the director Daniel Stevens and his father Tony Stevens took large fees from consumers about to be evicted from their homes after arranging high-interest and unaffordable bridging loans.

The FCA found that in some cases, the defendants bought homes for less than their value from owners who were facing repossession and then rented the properties back to these consumers.

The defendants were not authorised to arrange mortgage contracts or sale and rent back agreements.

The judge described the breaches as “exploitative of vulnerable individual consumers’ and found that they were undertaken ‘to obtain significant personal gain”.

London Property Investments have been ordered to remove around 22 restrictions registered against individuals’ properties.

These restrictions were used by the defendants to force the individuals to pay exorbitant fees to LPI and if fees were not paid, then the individual could not sell or re-mortgage their property.

In July 2020, the FCA obtained an interim injunction and a freezing order to stop these activities and freeze residential properties and other assets owned by the director, his father and the two companies.

The FCA says a later trial “will consider remedies, including compensation for affected individuals”.

This trial will also hear evidence in respect of up to 88 further potentially affected individuals who were not part of the FCA’s first claim.

FCA executive director of enforcement and market oversight Mark Steward says: “These companies and individuals were not just providing financial services without proper authorisation, they were doing it to take advantage of people who were struggling and in vulnerable circumstances.”

“Their actions cost consumers large amounts of money in fees, inflated loan interest and lost equity in their homes. This judgment will help bring financial relief to these consumers.”

Finopulse

Disclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Finopulse.
Publisher: Becky Bellamy

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